Iraqi forces have reached the Tigris albeit temporarily for now. The golden brigade & 9th are pushing forward currently. What is sad about this is the coist/humint ths t is lacking. Much like the peshmerga when Iraqi forces take cell phones etc much of it is relegated to trash due to insufficient means. I've got peeps on the ground who are saying once refugees seek safe lines that cellphones are not checked humint wise but are disregarded due to no technical expertise or equipment or time.
Basically we are losing vast amounts of data on ISIS activities by not providing coalition forces with equipment to decrypt and read mobile phones. I was present j n mejkmour/gwer and the Bashiqa operation when refugees came. We had boxes of phones that piled up due to not having the tech to check them (I've got several daesh/iSiS flash drives for mobile that I've decrypted now at my house.

The humint/ING community needs to expand here as hundreds of mobiles are collected daily. If 10% hold info that's 10-100 which is significant. Why are no units focused on mobile/Wi-Fi networks and communications.
in afgh we would scan the p gone etc etc. Here they get relegated to a cardboard box and eventually thrown in a fire. At one point my unit had over 1500 mobile phones which they ended up burning. Whj by if 10% had info on it, we lost it.
What do you think is or should be the proper way to scan and recognize refugee threats from mobile.

Yep. We had this conversation in the hotel if you recall. It could be done commercially, if the Kurds could just get out of their own fucking way. What a waste.

__________________
I was born my papa's son
When I hit the ground I was on the run
I had one glad hand and the other behind
You can have yours, just give me mine
When the hound dog barkin' in the black of the night
Stick my hand in my pocket, everything's all right

You're living one hell of a life buddy. I hope you write a book when it's all over.

__________________
"The real problem was being able to stick it out, to sit in an office under the orders of a wee man in a dark gray suit and look out of the window and recall the bush country, the waving palms, the smell of sweat and cordite, the grunts of the men hauling jeeps over the river crossings, the copper-tasting fears just before the attack, and the wild, cruel joy of being alive afterward. To remember, and then go back to the ledgers and the commuter train, that was impossible. He knew he would eat his heart out if it ever came to that."

Shaky yeah I've held talks with some people. The kurds are wary of any non-Kurd coist/humint groups etc. But I don't see why no one is explaining the importance or pushing it to get hands on access to the info that's available. Id rather see small groups of humint/coist moving about collecting data than 500+ marines providing artillery support etc. End of the day weapons won't stop insurgencies or prevent them but humint/coist can and will give a better understanding of on the ground situations and even regional issues as well as info on recruitment/retention for the extremist groups.

You're living one hell of a life buddy. I hope you write a book when it's all over.

Lol half the shit I'm doing or have done probably skirts multiple international norms and laws I'm on enough radars as it is, which is fine but, I don't think I'll ever write a actual book maybe short info on situations in the region but that's about it. That and i dont find what i'm doing interesting atleast to the masses and I don't feel like profiteering off of violence.

Lol half the shit I'm doing or have done probably skirts multiple international norms and laws I'm on enough radars as it is, which is fine but, I don't think I'll ever write a actual book maybe short info on situations in the region but that's about it. That and i dont find what i'm doing interesting atleast to the masses and I don't feel like profiteering off of violence.

Do you keep a journal? Considering your lifestyle, you probably don't have time, however it really would be interesting later on.

Iraqi forces have reached the Tigris albeit temporarily for now. The golden brigade & 9th are pushing forward currently. What is sad about this is the coist/humint ths t is lacking. Much like the peshmerga when Iraqi forces take cell phones etc much of it is relegated to trash due to insufficient means. I've got peeps on the ground who are saying once refugees seek safe lines that cellphones are not checked humint wise but are disregarded due to no technical expertise or equipment or time.
Basically we are losing vast amounts of data on ISIS activities by not providing coalition forces with equipment to decrypt and read mobile phones. I was present j n mejkmour/gwer and the Bashiqa operation when refugees came. We had boxes of phones that piled up due to not having the tech to check them (I've got several daesh/iSiS flash drives for mobile that I've decrypted now at my house.

The humint/ING community needs to expand here as hundreds of mobiles are collected daily. If 10% hold info that's 10-100 which is significant. Why are no units focused on mobile/Wi-Fi networks and communications.
in afgh we would scan the p gone etc etc. Here they get relegated to a cardboard box and eventually thrown in a fire. At one point my unit had over 1500 mobile phones which they ended up burning. Whj by if 10% had info on it, we lost it.
What do you think is or should be the proper way to scan and recognize refugee threats from mobile.

There is a DOD entity whose sole existence is exploiting such material. How are you not able to pass this stuff to the task force which is utilizing this resource?

There is a DOD entity whose sole existence is exploiting such material. How are you not able to pass this stuff to the task force which is utilizing this resource?

Because in the area where we were, where all of this was happening, there wasn't a TF presence. The area has since been liberated. I passed along several nuggets of info from RedBull to the TF and the response was usually along the lines of "Thanks, we will get right on that". So after a few of those you stop bothering with trying to help.

__________________
I was born my papa's son
When I hit the ground I was on the run
I had one glad hand and the other behind
You can have yours, just give me mine
When the hound dog barkin' in the black of the night
Stick my hand in my pocket, everything's all right

I think it's okay. The issue remains. As long as we dont talk in too specific terms. Maybe someone will read this and actually get RB some assistance. Doubtful, I know.

__________________
I was born my papa's son
When I hit the ground I was on the run
I had one glad hand and the other behind
You can have yours, just give me mine
When the hound dog barkin' in the black of the night
Stick my hand in my pocket, everything's all right

Because in the area where we were, where all of this was happening, there wasn't a TF presence. The area has since been liberated. I passed along several nuggets of info from RedBull to the TF and the response was usually along the lines of "Thanks, we will get right on that". So after a few of those you stop bothering with trying to help.

For political correctness the EU is avoiding to use liberated, instead, they use retaken. Although been going in and out of Mosul and surrounding areas a lot since October of last year, all of those people feel liberated.

For political correctness the EU is avoiding to use liberated, instead, they use retaken. Although been going in and out of Mosul and surrounding areas a lot since October of last year, all of those people feel liberated.

That's predictable, as Daesh will resort to small and surgical attacks using unconventional tactics. There will be more attacks like this in East of Mosul because:
1. The Iraqi military has no concept neither capacity of capture and hold. Last time I was in East Mosul was in January 2017 and it;s clearly observed that there are less CP compare to October 2016;
2. There are many inexperienced international NGO staff who are now roaming around in East Mosul with no concept of security. This present delicious target for Daesh
3. One must admit that the ISF/FedPol/Rapid Reaction Forces and other Baghdad organized military units are less experienced than the Kurds Peshmerga.

There will be more skirmish between Daesh sleeper cells and the Iraqi military in the future which will lead to more deaths.

After Mosul falls, there will still be a insurgency. Due to Sunni Shia issues. Baghdad has yet to filfill any of the sectarian agreements. There are Sunni groups regrouping in ramadi & Fallujah now to push out the "Shia oppressors" Mosul isn't going to end the violence or get even close. With the rise of hashd its increased recruitment into anti Shia pro Sunni jihadist groups.

Not really, most respect what US did just not the after issues. The US supported a Shia dominated gov which since post invasion marginalized Sunni areas. Yes the sunni areas had predominantly more terrorist issues, but there was no reconciliation between Sunni baathists and the US installed gov. Even today Baghdad operates under heavy iranian/shia influence to the detriment of Sunnis in Anbar area and other areas of Iraq. Our biggest downfall in Iraq was not forming proper non-tribal reconciliation between Sunni Shia and a cohesive gov. And after ISIS it will continue to be unstable as long as the Baghdad gov doesn't recognize the sectarian issue. Isis will never disappear its now solidified much like the Taliban in the 70-80s as a proper movement, we will never see the end of it. Just it exploiting unstable areas to declare impromptu caliphates and bases to attack from. We dropped the ball by regarding them as JV team groups and ignoring the spread of their ideology and tactics and now it will be a permanent threat.